The Beavers Back

[David]

Welcome back guy,

Where ya been keepin yourself.....Looking forward to the tutorial.

Dave Theobald

[SCOUTER]

Beaver! Welcome back! That little hiatus seemed to improve your carving skills! Sweet!

[leathercat]

hi im leather cat a new that is a fine peace of work there im not as good as you because im 9 but if you want to see my work it is called the school bag tag!

:D

!leathercat!

[Tina]

There's a lot of "skull makers" in the forum, but I actually love your design Ken on this vest. Keeping an eye on you:-)

[Beaverslayer]

Here's the shoulder piece after about 4 1/2 hours carving.....my thumb hurts. Should have her finished tomorrow night I hope. Then we'll move into the layout and sizing of the rest of the vest.

Thanks for the compliments so far.

Ken

[bustedlifter]

Nice work Beav! The design really pops.. oh,yeah, great to have you back!

[Gray]

Who knew the Beav had such talent...Eddie must be jealous. Welcome back, Mr. Slayer.

[ClayB]

Hey Ken,

It's really nice to have you back! The carving detail on your piece is REALLY nice. It's going to be fun seeing the process you use to make this into a finished vest. Thanks for taking the time to do this for all of us here on the forum.

Clay

[Beaverslayer]

Well thank you so far with the compliments, they are appreciated. Now it's on to the pattern making.

First off you need to know the measurements of the person wearing the vest. You need chest/bust measurement, from the indent in the throst (below adems apple) to the top of the belt, and from the first vertabrea to the top of the belt on the back.

As this vest is going to be for a 37" chest and the customer has requested that it also fir on the outside of a jacket, I have had to make a few allowances for this.

As you see in the picture, ther front panel is 11 1/2" wide, there is a 1/2" extra on all edges (except the "V" on top) for folding over to make a finished edge and to accomodate the lacing. This will give me a 10 1/2" width on each front piece, or 21" in total across the front.

The back piece is shown as only half, as I just flip it over when marking out the leather (saves poster board). You can see that it is 7 1/2" wide, not includeing the 1/2" fold, which is needed on the sides and bottom. So in total I will have a 15" back piece, add this to the 21" in front gives you a total of 36".

Now when it is constructed, there will be a minimum 1" gap between the front and back on both sides where the side adjusting laces go. So add this 2" to the overall measurements, and you get 38" in total for the chest measurement. Using the adjusting laces on the side, this vest can be made 2" samller or up to 4" larger to accomodate the wearing over a jacket, or weight gain or loss.

This is the pattern for the pockets and the side adjustors. The pocket pattern is also used for the inside pocket as well, but is cut from Pigskin Suede instead of the garment leather.

These pictures give you a look at how the side adjustor is cut 3/4" smaller than the area that it will be finally attached to. The reason for this, is that when you fold the outer edge over, you don't want the fold to be all bunched up and cause you problems. Once the outer edge is folded over and the lacing done, this piece is held in by one half of the lacing that will be done, and there is a minimal ammount of structural integrity needed at these points.

This picture shows you how the side adjustors will basically be assembled when we get to this point, I wanted to show you this, so I wouldn't forget later.

So now that you have the basic pattern down, it's time to lay it out on a side of garment leather, or deerskin or whatever you want to make a vest out of. I tend to use the area around the legs for the pockets, as they have some very nice texture to them and this adds to the look of the vest. Try to be very careful that you are not placing your template over any defects or brand marks, this is very annoying once you cut all the leather and find a "Bar U" brand somewhere on your piece.

More to come soon. Thanks for looking

Ken

[Spider]

Wow bro you are on it!!!! Very impressive.